Nazareth girls fall to Northwestern in SportsFest girls basketball final

Express-Times Photo | NANCY SCHOLZKassie Behler, left, led Nazareth with 10 points in a 44-34 loss to Northwestern in the finals of the Sportsfest girls basketball tournament.

Overcoming the fatigue of playing 21 games in a week, in two
tournaments, Nazareth came out of the losers' bracket and reached the
championship final of the SportsFest girls varsity basketball tournament on
Sunday at Cedar Beach.

The Blue Eagles settled for second place, however, after a
44-34 loss to Northwestern.

"Win or lose, it's all about developing skills and teamwork
at these summer tournaments and I'm really happy with the effort our players
put in,"Nazareth coach Rich Bickert said.

After leading 15-14 at the half, Northwestern employed a
trapping zone press and gradually pulled away. Point guard Sara Jones, named
the tournament's Most Valuable Player, scored a game-high 13 points and also
grabbed eight rebounds for the winning Tigers. She also blocked a shot.

"We pushed the ball and spread the floor," she said. "We beat
some big 4-A programs to reach this final and we pulled together like a family.
We had a big second half to win the championship, we really wanted it and we
picked each other up."

Managing to stay in the winners' bracket, Northwestern went
5-0 in the tournament. The Tigers defeated Northampton and Emmaus in their
second- and third-round games on Saturday night and Parkland in Sunday's
semifinal.

The winners out-rebounded Nazareth 27-22 in the final. Tigers
power forward Trista Cunningham pulled down a game-high 11 caroms while also
scoring 10 points. Sarah Segan contributed five rebounds, also crashing the
boards.

"I appreciate the dedication and unselfishness of all the
kids," Northwestern coach Chris Deutsch said. "This was, by far, the toughest
bracket we've ever had to get through, to get to the semifinals and finals."

Ironically, Nazareth started the SportsFest tournament with a
loss to Northwestern on Friday night. The Blue Eagles then worked their way
into the final with wins over North Schuylkill Valley, Fleetwood, Palmerton,
Dunmore, Salisbury, Whitehall and Bangor. The double-elimination tournament
included 30 teams.

"We had a lot of very impressive wins on our run," Bickert
said. "The effort was there, we played as a team and we worked hard against a
Northwestern team that played an aggressive tempo, but we were tired. We
weren't making sharp cuts the way we should, were not quite as quick as they
were."

Scoring a layup on a give-and-go and making a free throw to
finish the Tigers' next possession, Jones led a five-point run that turned a
30-27 lead into a 35-27 lead, giving the Tigers some breathing room. A put-back
basket by Gary cut the lead to 35-29, but Nazareth never got any closer.

A sign that both teams were weary was the free-throw
shooting. Nazareth did not help itself by making only 5-of-14 foul shots, but
Northwestern, 7-for-15, was not much better.

Earlier in the week, Nazareth took part in a tournament at
Messiah College in Grantham, Pa.

In the boys varsity tournament, called the A-town Throwdown,
Easton and Liberty went through their pools unscathed with 3-0 records and
emerged from a 48-team field to reach Sunday's round of 16. However, they
advanced no farther as Easton lost to Souderton 41-28 and Liberty lost to
Bensalem 67-50 on Sunday afternoon.

Freedom was edged 35-34 by Allen in a rematch of last year's
tournament final. Freedom qualified with a 2-1 record in its pool.